Michael Collier (poet)
Michael Robert Collier (born 1953) is an American poet, academic, creative writing program administrator, and editor. Life Collier was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He attended Santa Clara University for a year, then transferred to Connecticut College in 1973 to study with Pulitzer prize-winning poet William Morris Meredith, Jr. In 1977, he moved to London on a Thomas Watson fellowship and worked with editor William Cookson on the British literary magazine Agenda. After graduating cum laude from Connecticut College in 1976, and receiving his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arizona in 1979, he was a writing fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, from 1979 to 1980. He moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1981, where he began teaching part-time at George Mason University, Trinity College and the University of Maryland, College Park. From 1983 to 1984, he was the coordinator of public relations and the poetry program at the Folger Shakespeare Library. In 1984, he was appointed full-time to the English faculty at the University of Maryland. In the summer of 1981, he attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference for the first time as the Margaret Bridgman Scholar in Poetry, followed by stints as a fellow in 1986, and as associate faculty in 1992 and 1993.Bain, David Haward and Duffy, Mary Smyth. Whose Woods These Are: A History of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1926-1992. Hopewell, New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1993. Pp. 363, 365, 368. In 1994, the trustees of Middlebury College appointed him Director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Founded in 1926, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is the longest-running writers' conference in the United States. In 2002, Houghton-Mifflin Publishers appointed Collier as its editorial consultant for poetry. He has published 5 books of original poetry, a translation of Euripedes' Medea, a book of prose pieces about poetry, and has edited 3 anthologies of poetry. From 2001 to 2004 he was the Poet Laureate of Maryland. As of 2011, he was the director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a professor of creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park and the poetry editorial consultant for Houghton Mifflin (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). He is married and has 2 sons. Writing In a 2005 interview, Collier stated that he has "always been drawn to more formal poets like Robert Frost" and continued by saying that other "early influences included Anthony Hecht and early Robert Lowell…and W.H. Auden, Philip Larkin." He added "I strongly identify with Philip Larkin, Thomas Hardy, Randall Jarrell, and George Herbert.""An Interview with Matt Barry," Grove Review, On Poetry Interview Series, Fall 2005. Recognition He has edited books by the American poets Michael Ryan, Spencer Reece, and Alan Shapiro and the British poet Glyn Maxwell, as well as the books Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize and Space Walk by Tom Sleigh, which won the 2008 $100,000 Kingsley Tufts award from Claremont Graduate University. From 2001 to 2004, Collier served as the Maryland state poet laureate."Michael Collier named Maryland poet laureate," The Baltimore Sun; Feb 28, 2001; page 2.E Awards *Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award Poetry, 2001 for The Ledge. *Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry, 2001 for The Ledge. *John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1995 *National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1994 and 1984. *National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1984. *"Discovery" ''The Nation'' Award, 1981. *Margaret Bridgman Scholar in Poetry, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1981. *Writing Fellow, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, 1979-80. *Thomas Watson Traveling Fellowship, 1976 Publications Poetry *''The Clasp, and other poems''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1986. *''The Folded Heart''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989. * The Neighbor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. *''The Ledge''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. *''Dark Wild Realm''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. *''An Individual History: Poems''. New York: Norton, 2012. Non-fiction *''Make Us Wave Back: Essays on poetry and influence''. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007. Translated *''Medea'' (with introduction & notes by Georgia Machemer). Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Edited *''The Wesleyan Tradition: Four decades of American poetry''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1993. *''The New Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry'' (edited with Stanley Plumly). Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1999. *''The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf anthology''. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000. *''A William Maxwell Portrait: Appreciations and Memories'' (edited with Charles Baxter & Edward Hirsch). New York: Norton, 2004. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Michael Collier, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, June 8, 2014. Audio / video *''Michael Collier: Reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, May 5, 1980''. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1980. *''Michael Collier'' (casette). Kansas City, MO: University of Missouri, 199-? *''Michael Collier: A reading October 4, 1995, in the Modern Languages Auditorium''. Tucson, AZ: Tucson Poetry Center, 1995. Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat. See also * List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems * "Laelaps" * Michael Collier b. 1953 at the Poetry Foundation ;Audio / video *Michael Collier at Slate: "The Life", *"Shelley's Guitar", *"Brave Sparrow", *"The Swimmr". *Michael Collier at YouTube *"A Conversation with Michael Collier [audiorecording"]. Blackbird Archive: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts. Fall 2007, Vol. 6, no. 2. *"Interview with Michael Collier, poet and director of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference". write the book #19, michael collier/bread loaf (8/9/08) ;Books *Michael Collier at Amazon.com ;About *Michael Collier, English Department, University of Maryland Category:American poets Category:University of Maryland, College Park faculty Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:American academics Category:People from Maryland Category:Writers from Maryland Category:Poets Laureate of Maryland Category:Connecticut College alumni Category:People from Phoenix, Arizona Category:Writers from Arizona Category:Living people Category:1953 births Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets